feedtime

That brings back memories. I saw them a few times back then. Obviously the sound doesn't do them justice there. They sounded like the records but much, much fatter and louder. But at least you get to see how they looked when they played - just engrossed in the music.

Actually named Shovel my album of the year in 1987, though idiot that I am I no longer own a copy. Incoherently reviewed Cooper S (which I also no longer own) in the Village Voice a year later. Said stuff about it such as: "They crank out four Stonestunes, a few obscure down-under jock-rockers; their Beach Boys outbleeds Jesus and Mary Chain's. Side two starts with acoustic back-porch picking, like side one of AC/DC's latest, then turns into Blind Willie Johnson. Mainly, Cooper S sounds like Feedtime: Beverly Hillbillies encased in concrete on the back of a pickup truck that's always threatening to tip over 'cause it's hurtling down a dirtball road full of chuckholes. The drummer's been hypnotised. The vinyl may or may not be warped; you can't tell. Feedtime play hermit-rock: shy, cranky, introverted. More oi than punk, their low-rent swagger making a stand for turf, they're nervous but ultimately trusting souls, cuddly as the tarsier on Shovel's cover, blind to the wicked ways of life outside Plato's cave. Their foot-thick noise-vandalism is a defense mechanism, like their lager." Earlier in the review, I describe Rick Feedtime's sound thusly: "gahongous sandpaper-guitar blur (screwed-up Link Wray gangliations crammed to death down your throat to clog your lungs, fractured beer-can slide on the side; bet he buys lotsa Band-Aids)."

Shovel was maybe my most played record of 1988. But none of my friends seemed to dig it like me. Didn't listen for years, then ripped the vinyl about six months ago. Very, very crackly, but yeah, it doesn't matter. I've continued to listen to it a lot, mostly the eight best songs. "Gun 'em Down" is weirdly touching- a tearjerker in a beery way. What made me dig it out was the Lamps record, which has a similar talent for getting a lot out of two chords. Though not as much as feedtime.

So in the years between feedtime and Eddy Current Suppression Ring, what have I missed in Australian loud stuff? There's a huge gap there for me.

With the Aberrant years, Sub Pop finally realizes our goal of releasing feedtime, a longtime staff favorite and a huge influence on the label’s early artistes. From 1978 or 1979 (dates are hazy) until the breakup of their classic lineup in 1989, Sydney, Australia’s feedtime—no, that’s not a typo, the ‘f’ is lowercase—shoved their mutant fusion of early American blues, stripped-down hard rock and minimalist punk on an often-hostile music scene. Their raw vision of rock music and disdain for trendy music-biz maneuvering earned them little in the way of mainstream success, but it did get them a rabid underground following (notably Sub Pop’s very own Mudhoney) and the support of seminal Aussie indie label Aberrant Records, Amphetamine Reptile Records and Rough Trade US.

The sound of feedtime was like nothing else in Australia: a vintage blues swagger via roots rock and the late ‘70s that didn’t come from an established clique, a pure strain of rock and roll with a relentless mechanical propulsion. It was the perfect symbiosis of syncopation, minimalist rock that carried a thunderous atmosphere of reckless intoxication and intense personal pain but with a self-assured “ease” amongst the chaos. The sound was both Zen-like transcendence and a form of self-defense from psychic scum. Impenetrable, yet welcoming. Guitar noise you could dance to with lyrics cut straight from experience, tradition and dead crazy urban confusion.

the Aberrant years collects the entire output of feedtime’s 1978-1989 lineup, including their self-titled debut, shovel, Cooper S and suction, plus gobs of rare bonus tracks and a full-color booklet with extensive liner notes by band biographer Leon O’Regan.

This is perfect sound and pure art. Avant-garde pub-rock. All hail the concrete urban blues.

As I mentioned in the Bitch Magnet thread, I'm really happy with this trend of ultra-cheap boxes. Props to Sub Pop for not only making this stuff easily available again, but all for under $15? Very impressive.